Bihar elections: RJD women’s wing chief Parihar will contest as an independent candidate against the party candidate.

RJD women’s wing state president Ritu Jaiswal on Sunday, October 19, announced that she will contest from Bihar’s Parihar assembly seat as an independent candidate in protest against the party giving ticket to her rival.

In a Facebook post, he expressed anguish that the ticket has been given to former RJD state president “Ram Chandra Purve’s daughter-in-law”, whose “betrayal” he blamed for his defeat from the seat in 2020 by a margin of less than 2,000 votes.

“I am going to file nomination papers as an independent candidate tomorrow. The party has indicated that it is willing to accommodate me in another constituency. But it will be a deal against my conscience,” said the 48-year-old, who started out as an educated panchayat chief.

Married to former civil servant Arun Kumar, who gave up a lucrative career to be elected as the head of the same Singjavahini panchayat in Sitamarhi that his wife earlier headed, Jaiswal had also contested the Lok Sabha elections from Sheohar constituency last year, where she lost to JD(U)’s Lovely Anand by a margin of less than 30,000 votes.

Although RJD has not yet formally announced the name of any of its candidates, pictures of Purve’s daughter-in-law Smita receiving the party symbol from national president Lalu Prasad’s son and successor Tejashwi Yadav have gone viral on social media.